New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-04-07
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE QUEEN OF NAVARRO.


MARGARET OF ANGoULEME Queen Of MayarE ssr,. by
1jmo. pp 3l6. Robert Brothers.
The life of Margaret of Navarro furnishes sinRh
iarly attractive theme for poetical and imagina-
tive writer and Miss Robinson has treated IL WIN
an infectious zest. Perhaps her sense oi 'uc
picturesque Is little too strong ana 100 constant
for historical work but it enables her 10 present
n vivid and striking portrait OF an exceptionally
interesting parsonage. and in Dotapie instances
10 temncred with excellent Judgment. History
knows Margaret of Navarro as the unselhsh ad-
wiser and devoted friend of her brother Francis l..
in whose romantic career of alternate splendor and
misery. of knghtly adventure and harsh captivity,
she il WAYS conspicuous and engaging figure.
Probably il would be mistake to attribute to
her any real political influence. but she was recog
n,zed as a chief power at the court and her pure
and beautiful sisterly affection was one OF the lew
happy influences of the king'sche ckered liIe y
special interest attaches to her on account Oh neI
freouent Interference TO moderate the severity OF
religions persecution, and the marked favor Win
which the refoImers or those suspected OF relorm-
inc tendencies were entertained III her train Miss
Robinson draws q fine sketch of Queen Margarets
little court at the castle of N6rac in Bearn, where
the Din Bellays. nd Clement Marot. and Etienne
Dolet. and Desperriers, and Roussel. and Calvin,
and n host OF scholars and poets, enjoyed her hos
pitaty. That was in the early days of the re-
igous revolt, when the lines were not as yet very
sharply drawn and great mary minds
were lightly attracted to the novel
doctrines without car1ng to spend much serious
thought upon them Nerac became refuge Tor
the speculative and daring. for those who found an
intellectual excitement in the new learning even
more than for those who believed In the new theoi-
ocy. Love and liberalism, tho revival of elegant
Al ,,l,;xro 10, nf 1ritJp
verse making good manners and the study OF scrip
ture were the daily entertainments of this unique
retreat where the saints and the muses. seemed to
stand in equarfavor. Miss Robinson is careful to
distinguish the real Impulse ana meaning OF queen
Margareps assembly. 1t was an important incident
in the literary renaissance. but It's connection Win
the development of Professionalism was
only slight and accidental. Margaret was
a woman of strong sympathies and no
convictions The unwilllDgness of some OF her
biographers to believe the current statement that
she died in the communion of the Roman Church Is
unreasonable She never had religion enough to
change.
The world knows her now "a the composer of in
oerious dirty stories after the manner of BoccaccO.
better than as the protector of preachers and poets
This fame she owes to her sstery affection, for she
wrote the "HeptamerOn" to amuse her brother, the
King. Ii is remarkable and valuable picture of
contemporary manners and has q literary interest
which its indelicacy can never quite destroy Inc
sixteenth century was coarse age, and things
might be spoken without offence then which our
ears could not bear The fault OF the "Heptameron,
however is something beyond coarseness 1t is an in
sepslbity to ethcai considerations which shows
personal defect in the writer Miss Robinson
acutely observes that &C. the pecuarity of the
'Heptameron is its union of an ideal of chivalry.
honor and religion with an entire absence of the
moral sense. Pety is affair of the thoughts. the
opinions the ideas possibly matter for ones own
personal life and soul. That it shodld attempt to
regulate the lives of others would be to fall into
the deadly sin of pride Mystical as Margaret ever
is she is naturally lenIent to the grOsser sins for
all her esoteric dogmas go to prove-drstly, that
the sins of the body of small account compared
with sins of the SOUL such pride and deafness of
spirit and secondly. that the soul exists only in
its relations to the idea Of God and that it has no
duties and no relations to the external world The
militant and responsible side of virtue is dead
in such souln careful reader of Miss Robin.
sons book will perceivc-what has perhaps cs-
capcd the aut hoIs own noIce-that this doctrine of
indifference is the direct outcome of the sort OF
quietistic mysticism with which Margaret once CO.
auetted for a while under the tutorshlp of
Briconnet, Bishop of Meaux. Quietism is alluring
to the sentimental temperament. but 1t has bear
ing not only unfavorable to militant virtue" but
grossly immoral.